The Brown Brick Road

Capturing our adventures one photo at a time...

Naples

We headed down to Naples for a little vacation over the 4th of July. It was HOT HOT HOT and FUN FUN FUN with plenty of beach and pool time! The trip down was, thankfully, uneventful and I was glad to actually have Robert flying with us for this trip!

airport

airport

Our days were spent playing at the beach, swimming in the pool and lounging around the house! Just perfect. These boys LOVED the beach – they dug in the sand, built castles, swam in the ocean, collected shells, got buried….they couldn’t get enough.

naples

beach

beach

beach

Spencer’s belly in the top left pic! 🙂 We even got to see several dolphins swimming in the ocean!

beach

It was super hot while we were down there but, luckily, our guys are all about the morning beach trip! We would hit up the beach around 9:00 after Samantha went down for her nap, play for an hour or two and then be back home in time for lunch…and in time to miss the hottest part of the day!

beach bums

Love my little beach bums!

beach

More Naples to come tomorrow!

DAD!

You didn’t think I would forget the very best DAD in all the world on Father’s Day, did you? No way! I just thought he deserved his very own post! 🙂 Robert, thanks for being Dad around here!

You make us all laugh…

robert

You get things done…

robert

You take care of everyone…

robert

You’re definitely a good sport…

robert

And you clean up real nice too!

dad

We’re so lucky to have you!

So, from me…

me and robert

Maxwell…

maxwell robert

Spencer….

dad

and Samantha…

samantha

Happy Father’s Day!

robert

We love you!!

NOLA

Two weekends ago, Robert, Samantha and I traveled down to New Orleans for the wedding of Robert’s friend, Lem. It took a lot of coordination to get us out of town but I’m so glad we made the trip. The boys got to go have a fun weekend in Montgomery with Lulu, Granddaddy, Jenny, Ronnie and, of course, Katie and Anna! It was their first time to stay away from home without us and they did great. On Friday, Robert and I dropped Maxwell off at school and then hit the road to Nola. Spencer stayed with Susan who then picked Maxwell up from school. Lulu and Ronnie then drove up to get the boys and take them to Montgomery for the weekend. See, lots of coordinating going on! 🙂

When we got to Nola, we had the very best babysitter in the world waiting there to keep Samantha in the hotel all weekend…

GJ

GJ’s the best.

Robert and I had fun at the party on Friday night…

nola

and then had more fun exploring Nola and being tourists on Saturday morning! Beignets = yum.

nola

Also, babies in hats = adorable.

nola

I hadn’t been to Nola in years and, while it’s a fun city, it’s pretty dirty and just not really my scene. It was also crazy humid all weekend. Apparently, it was also exhausting…

nola

Completely exhausting..

nola

Still, we loved getting to see good friends and explore the city a bit.

nola

Meanwhile, back in Montgomery… the boys weren’t missing us one bit! They were having too much fun eating at Moe’s, camping out in sleeping bags, and going to the zoo!

moes

sleeping bags

zoo

zoo

nola

A HUGE thank you to all the Mgm Browns for making the boys’ weekend SO fun!!

In Nola, Robert and I got all dolled up to go the wedding on Saturday night…

nola

where we had a great time and loved getting to celebrate Lem and Evie!

nola

lem and robert

lem and evie

We even made it to the after party where some people danced on top of a pool table!

nola

But, I don’t know much about that. 😉 Sunday morning came way too early and we hit the road. Robert and I were both wishing we could have been doing this on the drive…

snooze

But, we made it to Montgomery and were so happy to get the boys and all be back together again!

mgm

It was a super fun weekend that would not have been possible without the help of our awesome families! Thank you again!

High Low

Happy Monday! Our rainy, rainy weekend had some highs and lows…

High! Samantha took FANTASTIC naps in her crib! I worked so hard to only keep her up an hour and a half after she woke up and then get her swaddled and back in her crib before she got fussy. It worked like a dream and for every nap I just laid her in her bed and walked out and she went right to sleep with little or no fussing at all! Hooray! Naps were all around 2 hours too. She would even wake up here and there and fuss for just a few seconds and then go right back to sleep. Go Baby Mantha!

nap

nap

Low! Nighttime sleeping was as bad as the daytime sleeping was good. I don’t know what kicks in when the sun goes down but she will. not. sleep. at. night. I tried putting her to bed super early – she woke up crying 30 minutes later. We tried rocking and rocking and rocking until she’s dead asleep and then put her in the bed and she immediately starts crying. The only way she’ll sleep lately is if we’re holding her…and that is exhausting for all. Maybe it’s the congestion still? Maybe it’s colic? I don’t know but she’s GOT to start sleeping at night. Oh, baby girl.

baby

High! Maxwell got go to the birthday party of his best bud, Max! and he got cake!

bday

Low! He went with a double ear infection. Ugh. He told me Friday afternoon that his ear really hurt so we had him up to see Dr. Walley first thing Saturday and, sure enough, both ears were infected. Basically it’s leftover from his last ear infection 3 weeks ago – the fluid just never really cleared up and got infected again. He’s now on another antibiotic that’s pretty nasty. Poor buddy.

mbb spb

High! Robert and I got to go out Friday night! There was a 50th Anniversary celebration for the kid’s school and they had a party with silent auction to celebrate. We had a great time and even went out to dinner with a few couples after. It was really nice to have a good meal and some adult conversation.

out

Low! When we came home, Samantha was wide awake downstairs on the couch with the sitter, Ms. Alice. Yep – see note above about not sleeping at night! Ms. Alice had tried and tried to get her to go to sleep but finally just brought her downstairs to hold her. I can’t blame her because that’s exactly what I did for the rest of the night in my bed – just hold her.

spb

High! I got Garth Brooks tickets for June for me and 4 friends! Woohoo! I’m not a big country music girl but Garth Brooks is different to me. I can’t wait! This was almost a low because, even though I was online right at 10:00, by the time Ticketmaster pulled up tickets, the 7:00 show for Saturday was sold out! I think both Friday and Saturday night shows sold out within 10 minutes. BUT, Garth immediately added a second Saturday night show for 10:30pm and I got tickets to that! That’s pretty late for us old ladies but we’re choosing to look at the bright side – now we can all go out to dinner beforehand! As Robert said, all these late nights up with Samantha have been preparing me for my night out with Garth! ha!

I’m gonna end this post on that high. Because really, even though there are always plenty of lows…the highs always win in the end! 🙂

samantha

See you tomorrow!